Upper Intermodal Container Attachment

[narig01]

beaulieu

One of my favorite websites

Cargolaw

 

Columbia River Roundup  Scroll down to near the bottom to see floating cans.

By the by one of the more interesting facts of admiralty law is a cargo getting washed overboard on the high seas is considered an act of god ie the shipping company is not liable for the loss. What happens in port I do not know!!

FOFLOL

Thx IGN

[Paul_D_North_Jr]

narig01

Modelcar:

....I didn't think containers had any floating ability....Can't imagine how the double doors would be watertight.  Now if the weight was towards the container's "back end", perhaps the "box" could float if the "front" doors were up out of the water.

 

Most containers have a rubber seal around the doors to keep out moisture. This is also true of most box trailers. It is important to keep many types of cargo dry. A 40' container loaded to 50,000 lbs will float. I'm not sure of the math. In the case of the motorcycles 20 motorcycles @ 350 lbs each  is only 7000 lbs in a 40' container. Light. 

   In the case of the rubber ducks I think the container was damaged going overboard which let the water in. Then the cardboard boxes disintegrated in the water. Followed by the container corroding away. NOAA bought the salvage rights so they could study the movement.(our tax dollars at work, I think it was a good buy under $1000)

Thx IGN

  Let me help out with the math a little bit.  An 8 ft. wide x 8 ft. high x 20 ft. long container has a volume of 1,280 cubic ft.  Water with a density of 62.4 lbs. per cubic foot (though seawater is a little heavier - what with the salt, etc. dissolved in it, you know), so when fully submerged that container would displace 1,280 cu. ft. x 62. 4 = 79,872 lbs. (practically, 40 tons).  Since the container's steel itself usually weighs about 6,000 lbs., if the cargo is 73, 872 lbs. (36.9 tons) or less the container will float as long as it remains watertight.  Since as explained above the container is likely not loaded beyond about 25 tons, while buoyant and floating it would be at least 1/3 out of the water, and higher if it is lighter or empty.

Even after the seals leak and water gets it, the container may still float if the cargo is Ping-Pong balls, a lot of Styrofoam has been used to cushion the cargo, and/ or thew cargo is something that is sealed and pretty much water-tight itself - washing machines and refrigerators come to mind.  On the other hand, a container of railroad car or track parts will soon be on the bottom . . .

In that same website, did anyone else see the photos of the new British Rail Class 70 (68 ?) locomotive that was dropped by the deck crane of the MV Beluga Endurance in January 2011 ?  The frame was bent so badly into a semi-bananna shape that it was scrapped !  See: http://www.cargolaw.com/2011nightmare_GE.Class70.html 

And here are links to a cople of articles about the rubber ducks that were tracked floating around the Pacific Ocean after leaving their container:

"Of Shoes And Ships And Rubber Ducks And A Message In A Bottle" - http://www.islandnet.com/~see/weather/elements/shoes.htm 

http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/0731/p01s04-woeu.html?related 

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2001/06/0619_seacargo.html 

- Paul North.       

[Modelcar]

.....What a web site of disasters...!!  Awesome photos.